Need to Make a Presentation? Start By Telling a Great Story.

What's the key to wowing your audience when you give a presentation? Carmine Gallo says "you have to start with the story first."

Gallo, a communication coach and author of TALK LIKE TED: The 9 Public Speaking Secrets of The World's Top Minds (St. Martin's Press, March 2014) cited Facebook COO and Lean In founder Sheryl Sandberg as a prime example of someone whose resonant story was the engine that drove her success.

Gallo argues that that Lean In would not have taken hold the way it has, if not for Sandberg's TED TALK, which went beyond just facts and figures. "A powerful story can spark and ignite an entire movement, but the story comes first, well before you open your power point slides."